Saturday, 13 August 2016

Of Loves, labels and Lexington burgers. Farewell Fortuna Pop

“He
said Martin Hannett had told him about eight grand, which was a
complete lie. I didn’t jump on it because it was a complete
surprise, but looking back on it that was the dawn of the British
independent movement, all from Rob thinking, well the first single
Tony spent £5000, we got £5300 back after paying all the costs and
we all made £100. If we made an album we would make real money,
which would mean, and I quote Rob Gretton here, “I wouldn’t have
to go to London every week and talk to cunts.”

Tony
Wilson

The
cunts Mr. Wilson (or rather Mr. Gretton) is talking about here are
record label people. The big boys who work with record companies with
three initials and worry about things like market penetration,
audience targeting, and say things like “Yeah, but where's the
single?”. They are not record label people like me and you know
them, the people who release stuff we treasure forever and soundtrack
our very existence. The people we see manning the merch stall and
read about in fanzines and witness wolfing down Lexington burgers
between bands. People like Sean Price of Fortuna Pop.

Like
everyone else who has a passion for indiepop, I was gutted to hear
that Fortuna Pop is in the process of being wound up. But, on
reflection, it's a bit like when a hero leaves your football team.
You are initially distraught, but if you love them you have to wish
them well and thank them for the good times.

Fortuna
Pop's first release (credited as being issued in 1995, and even by my
GCSE maths makes the label 21, but as Mr. Wilson said, always print
the legend) was a 7” by Taking Pictures called Fallen Angel.
“They're
a friend of my brother’s band. We were living in Shepshed, near
Loughborough.”
wrote Price “When
you live in a small town you make your own entertainment – smashing
up shops or buying an eight-track.” The
record made very little impact, but it was a start. Something born of
a daydream that you could physically hold and play. The label, Bambi
like, began to wobble to it's feet.“I
had no idea really about distribution or marketing. I thought we
would send one copy to John Peel who would play it and we would
instantly get the band on Top Of The Pops and we’d take off and
sell thousands of records”
he said.
“It didn’t quite happen like that!”

Things
started to get interesting with the labels sixth release, the lost
classic (and it is a classic) Rob A Bank by The Butterflies Of Love.
It sounds like The Mary Chain doing Fuzzy by Grant Lee Buffalo, all
shimmering echo and heartache. It's a beautiful record. Price himself
describes it as “One
of the best singles I’ve ever heard in my life. It was one of
German Rolling Stone’s top 10 singles of the year, the year it came
out. Up until then I was releasing records by friends. That’s the
point where maybe I got more serious and maybe the quality of the
label went up. It sounded like a real record, rather than one that
was made by your mates.”

From
that came a steady but solid stream of records that were adored in
bedrooms all over the country but failed to bother the radio or the
charts from bands like Mark 700, Twinkie, Discordia, and The
Chemistry Experiment. By 2000 they were releasing records by bona
fide indiepop legends. The evergreen You Can Hide Your Love Forever
by Comet Gain (blessed with a pitch perfect talent for writing pop
songs and aesthetically a beatnik Brian Jonestown Massacre but with a
worse reputation for actually making the gig), ex Loft and Weather
Prophet Pete Astor, Why Doesn't That Surprise Me by the Lucksmiths
and Milky Wimpshake's Lovers Not Fighters. Soon, they were wielding
the big hitters like The Last Match by The Aislers Set (described by
Price as the best album the label put out and a proper classic in
it's own right) and Amelia Fletcher's outfit Tender Trap. (I think
Ten Songs About Girls is the best record she's ever made. An arguable
point I agree, but I'll happily argue about it in the pub with you).

Things
really started to cook in 2009 with the release of the eponymous
album by Pains of Being Pure At Heart “The
definitive release for me. Things didn't really work out in the end
between me and them, but that was a key point for Fortuna Pop in the
way it attracted so many more bands to the label. It increased
Fortuna Pop's profile massively. I genuinely don't believe
either Herman
Duneor Crystal
Stiltswould
be on the label if I hadn't had such success with that record. Before
The Pains... it used to be me chasing bands to put their records out
on Fortuna Pop. Now it's the other way round with bands chasing me”

The
roster from then reads like a Who's Who of modern indiepop. Ex Hefner
Darren Hayman, the uke driven dream pop of 'Allo Darlin', the sixties
sing along of The Loves, the brittle but beautiful Withered Hand, the
literally breathtaking Flowers, (along with Jerv's WIAIWYA label) the
absolutely perfect Shrag, Joanna Gruesome, the much underappreciated Evans the Death (the first album is a classic, the latter LP's a
byword in pop experimentation), The Spook School (sounds like Billy
Bragg after eight bags of cola cubes, looks like three church mice with a Trumpton Tommy Cooper on drums) and Durham folk heroes Martha
(ultra intelligent pop punk and Everyman charisma. Incredibly, they
seem to get better after every release).

Despite
quoting from the Factory label at the start of this, I think Fortuna
Pop are more like Creation, one of those labels you just trust. The
FPOP catalogue number being a reliable sign of quality, like the
kitemark on your condom or the lion on your egg. The label took the
best (Iie:pre Oasis. Oasis were playing Knebworth when the second Fortuna
Pop record was being released, though being London based it's
unlikely Fortuna Pop were afraid of Britpop) bits of Creation, things
like putting on packed, thrilling, sweaty gigs above pubs and
releasing killer 7” after killer 7”. Caring about what your label was, what it did and what it meant to people. Always trusting your ears and following your heart.

It's
difficult to know what Fortuna Pop's legacy will be. It's unlikely
FPOP001 will go for £500 quid on Ebay and baffled Belgian tourists will try and find Sean's gaff like Sarah Records, and Sean is
probably far too humble (he probably hates eulogies like these),
level headed and down to earth (“One
of my criteria for signing anyone is that I can go down the pub with
them”)
to let a book or a DVD make the label a myth like the Creation and
Factory documentaries. (Though I hope he writes his own book, he is a
gifted writer. His sleeve notes to the Be True to Your School comp
got me into writing about pop). Whatever happens, Sean Price has a
label that the kids who dig the new Spooks and Martha LP's can work
backwards through and discover gem after gem after gem. And you can't
ask for more than that can you?

(Dedicated
to Sean Price, with thanks to DiS, Penny Black Music and God is in
the TV for the quotes. Special thanks to Paul Richards of Scared to
Dance for getting me to write again (it's amazing what a chat over a
pint at Indietracks can do). Apologies to any bands I've forgotten. I
still love you.)

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brilldream is written by shaun, a tall shropshire lad who enjoys railway signage and a good pint. he dreams that his 'songs that saved my life' posts will one day turn into a book. he loves being contacted at either